Explorers of Navoria

On a cursory glance you might be forgiven for thinking that Explorers of Navoria was set in the same universe as Root (Leder Games). It comes in a similar sized box and the wooden character pieces have at least a passing resemblance to the factions in Root. This game from Dranda, however, is otherwise nothing like Root; which was a highly asymmetric wargame. Explorers of Navoria is instead a card drafting and worker placement game where, over three rounds, the 2-4 players are in effect building a relatively easygoing engine to get the most points out of the cards they draft and the resources they collect.

Each round players pull coloured wooden tokens from a bag, choosing one and drafting one of the cards that corresponds to that colour. Instead of drawing tokens from a bag, subsequent players can just pick up one of the tokens previous players have discarded. Once the card drafting phase is complete, players take turns placing the same coloured tokens out on corresponding spots on the board, worker placement style, where they will earn one or more of the three resources in the game.

There are randomised scoring tiles that help fuel the economy of the game in that they may well incentivise the collection of particular cards: once you meet a tile's 'five-of-a-kind' requirement, you get to benefit from that tile's additional scoring bonus at the end of the game. Aside from their different set collection icons, the different colour cards have distinct functions. Purple cards let you move your explorer meeple along a track in order to earn points; Blue cards give you points at the end of each round based on the particular creature icons you have in your card tableau; Green cards give you resources to unlock bonuses on your player board; Yellow cards let you build trading posts; and Red cards give you end-game points for the trading posts you've built in each region.

With Explorers of Navoria, Meng Chunlin has designed and illustrated a charmingly attractive, light but satisfying eurogame that can be readily introduced to new players but which can equally be played and enjoyed by seasoned boardgamers. The rules suggest a playing time of 20 minutes per player, and from our plays at Board's Eye View we'd put that as closer to 15 minutes per player; our two-player games have come in at no more than 30 minutes, and our four-player games have mostly been under an hour, tho' in most cases, win or lose, players were left wanting more - which is usually a good sign.

The Forgotten Lands expansion lets you up the player count to five players and also offers the option of a solo/solitaire campaign. The expansion provides some asymmetric starting bonuses and offers additional randomised scoring options. It adds a deck of White cards, each of which counts as two colours but which otherwise has no icon. However, there's an icon on the corresponding white token used for card selection, and you get to use that towards your five-of-a-kind set collection. And of course there's an extra island to position on the board so you have somewhere to place out those white tokens in the resource gathering phase.

Sometimes with an expansion you want to combine it with the core game at the outset. You can certainly do that if your Explorers are all seasoned gamers. Explorers of Navoria is a game tho' you could use as a gateway game to introduce modern boardgames to players who have previously ventured little beyond Monopoly. If you're playing Explorers of Navoria as a gateway game, by all means add the Forgotten Lands facility for a fifth player but we'd avoid adding the asymmetric starting elements and the additional scoring options until players have all familiarised themselves with the base game.

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